takevstasteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: take is a verb, taste is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“take” is a verb and “taste” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#128
“take” frequency rank
#1,924
“taste” frequency rank
2052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature take taste
Definition To get into one's hands, possession, or control, with or without force. One of the sensations produced by the tongue in response to certain chemicals; the quality of giving this sensation.

Where the eye mixes take and taste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
take
5 ch
taste

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: take is /teɪk/ while taste is /teɪst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

take is recorded at frequency rank #128, classified as averb, pronounced /teɪk/. taste is at rank #1,924, tagged as anoun, pronounced /teɪst/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 2052, this pair ranks #525,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of take vs taste

Shared letters: aet. Private to "take": k. Private to "taste": s.

"take" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "taste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • takeatke · taek · takke · tkae · ttake
  • tasteatste · taset · tasste · tastte · tatse · ttaste

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "take" and "taste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "take" is a verb and "taste" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "take" or "taste"?
"take" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #128 in our English list, against #1,924 for "taste". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list